1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of plug-and-play mass storage and more particularly to shared plug-and-play mass storage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Plug-and-play mass storage has become the rage of the early twenty-first century. From solid state removable mass storage devices such as Compact Flash™, Smart Digital™, and Memory Stick™ technology, to mechanical platter based storage devices such as the Microdrive™, digital data no longer remains bound to the bulky and largely non-portable confines of the fixed disk drive. In the context of Compact Flash, Smart Digital and Memory Stick technologies, a proprietary interface ordinarily will be required. Though the various interface specifications have been widely publicized and standardized as a matter of course, the selection and inclusion of a proprietary interface within a computing design can be expensive, require end-user configuration and can consume excessive power.
In view of the traditional difficulties associated with coupling and engaging solid state removable mass storage devices through a proprietary interface to the personal computing device, recently it has become popular to couple and engage solid state removable mass storage devices through the existing input/output ports of the personal computing device. While hard and floppy disk drives, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-R and CDR devices have been coupled to and engaged with personal computing devices through parallel and serial input/output ports, the use of the parallel and serial input/output port has never gained a level of ubiquity expected primarily due to the requirement that devices are attached therethrough prior to boot strap.
The universal serial bus (USB) specification addressed the principal concern of peripheral component manufactures in the ability of the USB port to dynamically activate and configure an attached device in a “plug-and-play” fashion. Since its introduction, the USB interface has rapidly become the interface of choice. To that end, USB mass storage devices barely the size of a human thumb have been popularized. USB mass storage devices of late include both flash memory configurations and Microdrive configurations. Thus, the USB interface presently provides an efficient mechanism for rapidly and effortlessly added mass storage to an operating personal computing device without requiring complicated configuration and a re-booting of the personal computing device.
Despite the advantages of portable mass storage devices which can be engaged “on the fly”, more advanced computing configurations, particularly small computing workgroups and home office configurations can require a level of file sharing beyond the physical exchange of a mass storage device. To that end, peer-to-peer networking technologies always have formed a small, but significant component of the computer data communications marketplace. Initially wire-bound peer-to-peer networking technologies formed the basis of peer-to-peer network computing. More recently, peer-to-peer network computing has embraced inexpensive wireless networking technologies including the various 802.11x based devices and the shorter range Bluetooth™ devices. While Bluetooth principally has found its niche in close-range data exchanges such as those between a PDA and desktop computer, or between headset and cellular telephone, 802.11x based devices have proven more applicable for larger scale applications including the formation of sophisticated wireless local area networks.
Through an established wireless local area network, individual personal computing devices can share each other's resources, including the physical mass storage devices of one another. Generally, to share a drive or a folder within a drive over an established network, one need only designate the drive or folder as a shared resource through the operating system. Subsequently, the contents of the drive or folder can be viewed and accessed by others in the peer-to-peer network, subject only the restrictions imposed by the operating system and, on occasion, by the end user.
Nevertheless, there are instances where it is desirable both to avoid coupling a computer to a peer-to-peer network, and also to share data only with a select group of individuals within a controlled, short range environment such as that more suited to short range radio frequency communications exemplified in the Bluetooth specification. Moreover, there are other occasions where one might seek to avoid configuration tasks associated with establishing a peer-to-peer network through which a resource can be shared. Yet, traditional peer-to-peer resource sharing can require one to perform some network configuration tasks which can inhibit less sophisticated users from capitalizing upon the peer-to-peer resource sharing tool.